In April 2026, Hungary held an election that changed the governing party after 16 years. The country elected the Tisza Party, led by Peter Magyar. The election ended 16 years of Fidesz-led government. Fidesz, a right-wing political party, governed Hungary for 16 years before the 2026 election. Its record included controversial decisions on public spending, health care and education, as well as disputes with the European Union over funding and governance. The European Union withheld portions of Hungary’s funding over concerns about compliance with EU requirements, and Hungary lost access to more than €1 billion in funds in early 2026. Hungary’s pension system faces longstanding challenges, including low pensions for some retirees and the legacy of irregular employment and underreported wages. One group that has experienced particularly serious effects is the elderly, many of whom live in pensioner poverty.
Explaining the Issue: Those Affected
Many Hungarians have worked on farms and in factories throughout their lives to make ends meet. However, after retirement, many live below the established poverty line.
Some people in Hungary receive pensions far below the country’s at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Around 23% of pensioners receive a monthly income below the official at-risk-of-poverty line. According to Human Rights Watch’s analysis of official Hungarian Central Statistical Office data, the at-risk-of-poverty rate among people aged 65 and over increased from 6.3% in 2018 to 16.1% in 2023.
Poverty rates among elderly women are even higher. Historically, women in Hungary earned less than men while performing the same or similar jobs. As a result, women often receive lower pensions after retirement.
Women in Hungary also tend to live longer than men. This means that female pensioners may have to live on a lower income for a longer period during their later years.
These factors have contributed to the growth of pensioner poverty in Hungary and have left many elderly people struggling to afford basic living costs.
Fidesz Government Policies, Funding and Inflation
Hungary gained independence from the Soviet Union between 1990 and 1991. The reporting of wages and the payment of social contributions can affect the pensions workers receive in retirement. Workers whose official earnings are recorded at lower levels may consequently receive lower pensions.
Between 2009 and 2011, the government introduced changes to the national private pension system as a way to strengthen the system. However, the government implemented these changes quickly, which left gaps in the system. As a result, some of the reforms failed to provide sufficient support to those most affected.
In 2009, Fidesz also stopped using the “Swiss indexation” method to increase pensions. This system based pension increases partly on wage growth. Instead, the government introduced an indexation system based on inflation.
These decisions contributed to future economic inequality, particularly between people receiving low fixed-income pensions and current workers and recent retirees who receive higher incomes.
Inflation has also had a direct connection to the increase in pensioner poverty in Hungary. Inflation surged between 2022 and 2023, putting additional pressure on pensioners who already relied on limited fixed incomes.
To combat rising costs, the Fidesz government introduced measures such as gas price controls and food price controls in 2023 and 2025. However, price controls may have limited effectiveness if businesses increase prices on other goods or services to offset their costs.
What the New Tisza Government Plans to Do
On May 25, 2026, Peter Magyar announced plans to support 1.3 million elderly Hungarians on the lowest pension incomes. According to Human Rights Watch, the proposed SZÉP-card support represents the government’s first step toward addressing pensioner poverty. The prepaid cards are intended to help recipients cover basic needs, including food and domestic travel. Magyar has also pledged to increase pensions for people receiving less than 500,000 HUF per month, prioritizing those receiving less than 250,000 HUF. The government’s manifesto also proposes raising the minimum monthly pension to 120,000 HUF. However, this proposed amount would remain below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold.
The extent to which these measures will reduce pensioner poverty remains uncertain. These proposals are intended to provide additional financial support to pensioners on the lowest incomes. However, their impact on pensioner poverty will depend on their implementation and whether the support is sufficient to help recipients meet their basic living costs.
What is Still Needed to Address Pensioner Poverty in Hungary?
Although the Tisza government’s proposed measures aim to provide additional support for pensioners, it remains to be seen whether they will significantly reduce pensioner poverty. Deeper reforms may also be needed to address the structural issues within Hungary’s pension system.
Human Rights Watch argues that structural pension reform is needed alongside short-term payments to improve social security and adequate living standards for older people.
A new pension indexation system could also help protect pensioners from future increases in inflation and living costs. Long-term reform will need to address the underlying weaknesses within the pension system so that fewer elderly Hungarians live below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold.
– Georgina Harrison
Georgina is based in London, UK and focuses on Politics for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Flickr
Solar Mesh Grids Improve Electricity Access in Haiti
Electricity access in Haiti is a major determinant of energy poverty. This term can be defined as insufficient access to energy that is both reliable and affordable enough for cooking, heating and other essential activities.
Only about a third of Haiti is electrified, with a stark difference between urban and rural areas. While urban electrification reaches up to 85%, it remains a mere 15% for rural populations. In these remote areas, which are home to 40% of Haiti’s population, wood and charcoal often serve as the primary sources for daily lighting and cooking.
Even for those connected to the grid, electricity is expensive and unreliable due to aging infrastructure and chronic mismanagement. Yet despite these challenges, Haiti represents an emerging market for renewable energy, and the country’s tropical location is ideal for solar.
The Solution
For people living off-grid, electricity access in Haiti often comes from mini-grids or solar home systems, each with pros and cons. Solar home systems are affordable and easy to install, but only produce enough power for basic lighting and charging needs. On the other hand, mini-grids can produce enough electricity for businesses and more demanding appliances but face higher upfront costs.
In 2021, a Haitian startup called Alina Eneji decided to pursue a third option: the mesh grid. The mesh grids, whose components are designed and built by the Australian company Okra Solar, combine the affordability of home solar with enough output to power small businesses.
They follow a hub-and-spoke model, where “hub” households receive solar panels, an inverter, a battery and a Pod, Okra’s metering device. Nearby “spoke” households receive a Pod and sometimes a battery, then connect to hubs by low-voltage lines. This setup allows homes within 50 meters of each other to share up to 600 watts of power and ensures that customers only pay for what they use.
The Outlook
Initially, Alina Eneji’s pilot program served only 35 homes, but it was not long before outsiders started taking notice. Following an intervention from the Global Energy Alliance, the number of connections surged to 1,000 by 2023.
Alina Eneji has continued expanding its network. An Inter-American Development Bank project approved in December 2023 aimed to support service for 8,000 additional rural households. The IDB project lists a total cost of $1.75 million and an original grant approval of $500,000. These are financing figures and an expansion objective, not evidence that every planned household has been connected.
Customers have found several new and economically productive ways to use their electricity. Some have bought the freezers and refrigerators necessary to run a bar or restaurant, while others offer paid phone charging services. Nighttime lighting has added a greater sense of safety, particularly for women.
Driko Ducasse, founder of Alina Eneji, says he wants to show stakeholders that electricity access in Haiti is within reach. “More broadly, my goal is to give back because I want other Haitians to have the opportunities that I have had.”
– Harland Pusey-Nazzaro
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
How Private Sector Investment Could Support Sudan’s Agricultural Recovery
Since the war in Sudan began in 2023, cereal production has fallen catastrophically, dropping 46% in the first year. By 2025, almost 90% of farmers and producer groups reported smaller harvests, and yields had fallen by as much as 71% in the areas most affected by fighting. UNDP reported that more than 19 million people were struggling to access enough food, while severe malnutrition was affecting the worst-hit communities. Sudan’s agricultural recovery is a crucial part of ending the country’s humanitarian crisis.
Market Islands
Sudan has impressive agricultural potential, given its 170 million acres of arable land, Nile-fed irrigation and adequate rain. However, the conflict has been detrimental to the agricultural sector.
The UNDP explains the current division of the sector, calling the disconnected industries “market islands.” Food prices have driven this division, which have risen up to 200% since the war began. Transaction costs have also contributed to higher food costs, rising by 30-40%.
Potential Growth
The UNDP analysis, in partnership with the International Trade Centre, identified a list of crops that could improve both food insecurity and income levels. These are sorghum, sesame, groundnuts, soybean, gum arabic, hibiscus and livestock.
Gum arabic is a particularly promising value chain, as Sudan produces around 80% of the world’s gum arabic, but disrupted collection and export routes have reduced export levels. Exports were approximately 40% below stable levels.
Financing Issues
Another major detriment to crop yields is the lack of appropriate financing for farmers. UNDP reports that more than 70% of farmers and small businesses cannot secure financing, hindering their efforts to maintain or increase production.
The Agricultural Bank of Sudan temporarily halted loan distribution because of inflation.
The agricultural sector is so fragile that many farmers have transitioned to subsistence plots, small pieces of land used to grow food solely for the farmer’s household. These plots protect farmers from economic downturns but also reduce crop production.
Dialogue Between UNDP and Sudan’s Ministry of Finance
On Sept. 23, the UNDP and Sudan’s Ministry of Finance concluded a three-day dialogue to develop an agricultural roadmap for Sudan’s food production crisis and economic recovery. More than 300 participants attended, including government ministries, businesses, financial institutions, the national and international private sector, farmers’ and trade associations and other stakeholders. The dialogue centered on engaging the private sector to reduce food insecurity and poverty, especially for individuals needing more support than humanitarian assistance. Prioritizing private sector engagement is imperative because it is responsible for nearly 98% of jobs.
The forum encouraged discussion of “productivity, access to finance (including credit guarantees, takaful insurance, blended finance and diaspora investment), market systems, and aggregation, trade and export facilitation, and policy and institutional reform.”
Outcomes of Khartoum Dialogue
The forum emphasized private-sector participation and the development of a roadmap for agricultural recovery. The forum also discussed potential investments with international participants; such proposals are not confirmed funding commitments.
Potential Support for Farmers
In terms of supporting farmers and crop production, there are a variety of measures UNDP is considering, including credit guarantees and trade facilitation.
UNDP is coordinating an attempt at a warehouse receipt system with the national and international private sector. Farmers would receive receipts that would support financing in exchange for storing their produce in approved facilities.
– Pritam Khalsa
Photo: Flickr
The Move Toward Inclusive Employment in Belarus
Belarus, situated in Eastern Europe, is a post-Soviet country that borders Russia, Ukraine and EU countries. The overall rate of unemployment has improved over the last two decades, but inclusive employment in Belarus remains an issue. While the general rate of unemployment in the country was about 3.5% in 2025, for those with disabilities it was much higher at 16.5%. However, signs indicate that things are moving in the right direction. Multiple initiatives, funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), are making workplaces more accessible and opening up new opportunities to help unemployed disabled people into work. It provides useful models that show how greater inclusive employment opportunities are possible.
The Work of the UNDP in Belarus
The United Nations Development Program has operated in Belarus since 1992. The agreement was to support economic development and promote social progress and better standards of life. One way it accomplishes this is through funding programs that equip those with different kinds of disabilities with tools for the workplace. These programs aim to expand opportunities for skills development, employment and social inclusion.
Dobra Kava
Dobra Kava, translated as “Good Coffee” in Belarusian, is a coffee roasting company based in Chojniki, Gomel region. Wheelchair users created the business, and its workshops are fully accessible. Founded in 2022, EU and UNDP support has been important in bringing this idea to life. By expanding beyond this region, Dobra Kava joined an international e-commerce marketplace, Ozon, allowing its coffee to reach more people. The knowledge these entrepreneurs have gained is now reaching others interested in selling products on online marketplaces through a “roadmap” they have made publicly available. Dobra Kava is an example of a business paving the way for the expansion of inclusive employment in Belarus. Its experience shows how accessible workplaces and digital tools can create employment opportunities, although it does not demonstrate a national decline in unemployment.
3D Printing and Animation Programs
Based in Luninets in the Brest region, a 3D printing program provides disabled people with opportunities to gain new skills. The initiative aims to help participants develop skills applicable to self-employment. The program also provides access to a community where people can share similar experiences. Another program, based in Grodno, teaches young people with intellectual disabilities skills in animation. It provides a space to collaborate and work together while learning new skills. Both initiatives show that, moving forward, programs are in place to not just help disabled people into employment, but also to provide a sense of social inclusion and value as part of a community. This is particularly important in smaller villages, like Luninets, where opportunities are more limited for those with disabilities.
Moving Forward
From building accessible workplaces to creating programs that teach useful digital skills, inclusive employment in Belarus is becoming a more achievable goal. The funding and support from the UNDP continue to play an important role in encouraging this move. Although these programs remain relatively small-scale, entrepreneurs, such as those who created Dobra Kava, lead the way in showing how creating inclusive employment opportunities is not just an aspirational goal but truly achievable.
– Madeleine Davey
Photo: Flickr
Expanding Safe Water Access in Kiribati
Kiribati is facing an urgent water crisis, with limited access to safe drinking water and sanitation placing communities at continual risk of disease. As reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), safe water access in Kiribati remains critically low. WHO’s 2022 indicators show low access to safely managed drinking water, particularly in rural communities. Kiribati also faces sanitation challenges, with limited access to safely managed sanitation services in WHO’s 2022 reporting, according to the WHO. These conditions contribute directly to the spread of waterborne and sanitation-related diseases, placing vulnerable communities at heightened risk. WHO identifies unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene as public health risks. These figures highlight the need for urgent intervention to strengthen water security and reduce preventable disease exposure.
The South Tarawa Water Supply Project
Several major organizations have collaborated to address the unsafe water and sanitation issues in Kiribati. The Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Green Climate Fund have co-financed, alongside the Kiribati government, a $92.06 million project on the island of South Tarawa, Kiribati. The primary goal is to substantially increase the population’s access to safely managed drinking water services that can withstand climate and disaster-related challenges, providing reliable, safe water access in Kiribati. Much of the investment targets infrastructure, through the construction and maintenance of two water desalination plants and new water supply networks.
In addition to infrastructure, the project aims to combat poor hygiene in the region, with new practices delivered through community programs. Education on safe sanitation practices will also be a focus, with initiatives introduced in several South Tarawa schools. Finally, the project will ensure the continued management and safeguarding of these new water sources, with it yet to outline specific activities. The first drinking water distribution system in South Tarawa, the McKenzie Desalination Plant, was commissioned and completed in 2025. However, the Betio desalination plant is delayed due to water-quality concerns, while parts of the distribution network remain under development. As a result, the project has not yet translated into widespread safe water access, with progress dependent on the completion of the remaining systems. This project operates in accordance with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank’s community safeguards, ensuring the minimization of adverse social and environmental outcomes.
Current Update – July 2026
The South Tarawa Water Supply Project provides community updates and consultations, detailing the project’s recent activities and progress. July’s update emphasized the importance of community involvement, calling for all in the community to help sustain and ensure solid maintenance of the water system. Community outreach and hygiene education are part of the project’s official objectives. Community engagement remains important to the project’s long-term operation.
The South Tarawa Water Supply Project represents a major step toward securing safe water access in Kiribati by building reliable and disaster-resilient water systems for the community. By combining the construction of new infrastructure, necessary upgrades to water supply routes, community engagement and strengthened hygiene, the initiative is establishing the systems needed to sustain safe water access in South Tarawa. Continued progress of this project is crucial to ensuring long-term improvements to public health and daily life in Kiribati.
– Xavier Stephens
Photo: Flickr
Addressing Pensioner Poverty in Hungary
In April 2026, Hungary held an election that changed the governing party after 16 years. The country elected the Tisza Party, led by Peter Magyar. The election ended 16 years of Fidesz-led government. Fidesz, a right-wing political party, governed Hungary for 16 years before the 2026 election. Its record included controversial decisions on public spending, health care and education, as well as disputes with the European Union over funding and governance. The European Union withheld portions of Hungary’s funding over concerns about compliance with EU requirements, and Hungary lost access to more than €1 billion in funds in early 2026. Hungary’s pension system faces longstanding challenges, including low pensions for some retirees and the legacy of irregular employment and underreported wages. One group that has experienced particularly serious effects is the elderly, many of whom live in pensioner poverty.
Explaining the Issue: Those Affected
Many Hungarians have worked on farms and in factories throughout their lives to make ends meet. However, after retirement, many live below the established poverty line.
Some people in Hungary receive pensions far below the country’s at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Around 23% of pensioners receive a monthly income below the official at-risk-of-poverty line. According to Human Rights Watch’s analysis of official Hungarian Central Statistical Office data, the at-risk-of-poverty rate among people aged 65 and over increased from 6.3% in 2018 to 16.1% in 2023.
Poverty rates among elderly women are even higher. Historically, women in Hungary earned less than men while performing the same or similar jobs. As a result, women often receive lower pensions after retirement.
Women in Hungary also tend to live longer than men. This means that female pensioners may have to live on a lower income for a longer period during their later years.
These factors have contributed to the growth of pensioner poverty in Hungary and have left many elderly people struggling to afford basic living costs.
Fidesz Government Policies, Funding and Inflation
Hungary gained independence from the Soviet Union between 1990 and 1991. The reporting of wages and the payment of social contributions can affect the pensions workers receive in retirement. Workers whose official earnings are recorded at lower levels may consequently receive lower pensions.
Between 2009 and 2011, the government introduced changes to the national private pension system as a way to strengthen the system. However, the government implemented these changes quickly, which left gaps in the system. As a result, some of the reforms failed to provide sufficient support to those most affected.
In 2009, Fidesz also stopped using the “Swiss indexation” method to increase pensions. This system based pension increases partly on wage growth. Instead, the government introduced an indexation system based on inflation.
These decisions contributed to future economic inequality, particularly between people receiving low fixed-income pensions and current workers and recent retirees who receive higher incomes.
Inflation has also had a direct connection to the increase in pensioner poverty in Hungary. Inflation surged between 2022 and 2023, putting additional pressure on pensioners who already relied on limited fixed incomes.
To combat rising costs, the Fidesz government introduced measures such as gas price controls and food price controls in 2023 and 2025. However, price controls may have limited effectiveness if businesses increase prices on other goods or services to offset their costs.
What the New Tisza Government Plans to Do
On May 25, 2026, Peter Magyar announced plans to support 1.3 million elderly Hungarians on the lowest pension incomes. According to Human Rights Watch, the proposed SZÉP-card support represents the government’s first step toward addressing pensioner poverty. The prepaid cards are intended to help recipients cover basic needs, including food and domestic travel. Magyar has also pledged to increase pensions for people receiving less than 500,000 HUF per month, prioritizing those receiving less than 250,000 HUF. The government’s manifesto also proposes raising the minimum monthly pension to 120,000 HUF. However, this proposed amount would remain below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold.
The extent to which these measures will reduce pensioner poverty remains uncertain. These proposals are intended to provide additional financial support to pensioners on the lowest incomes. However, their impact on pensioner poverty will depend on their implementation and whether the support is sufficient to help recipients meet their basic living costs.
What is Still Needed to Address Pensioner Poverty in Hungary?
Although the Tisza government’s proposed measures aim to provide additional support for pensioners, it remains to be seen whether they will significantly reduce pensioner poverty. Deeper reforms may also be needed to address the structural issues within Hungary’s pension system.
Human Rights Watch argues that structural pension reform is needed alongside short-term payments to improve social security and adequate living standards for older people.
A new pension indexation system could also help protect pensioners from future increases in inflation and living costs. Long-term reform will need to address the underlying weaknesses within the pension system so that fewer elderly Hungarians live below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold.
– Georgina Harrison
Photo: Flickr
Women’s Economic Participation in Sao Tome and Principe
Sao Tome and Principe is a small island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Central Africa, with roughly 220,000 residents. Women’s economic participation in Sao Tome and Principe trails men’s on several measures. The World Bank’s Gender Data Portal indicates that although Sao Tome and Principe behaves similarly to other lower-middle-income countries, its performance on indicators related to women’s economic empowerment more closely resembles its low-income neighbors. The country, however, has made strong legislative strides to safeguard women’s rights, such as passing a Gender Parity Law and reforming labor codes. A more recent program developing women’s economic positions while supporting local agricultural businesses looks promising.
Where Inequality Stands
Women’s economic participation in Sao Tome and Principe is close to men’s on paper, but participation is low for everyone. Available World Bank indicators point to barriers to economic opportunity, although measures of employment, labor-force participation and earnings should not be treated as interchangeable. Among those who work, women are slightly more likely to be in vulnerable employment (35.8% versus 34.2%), and the 2025 youth unemployment rate was 9.4% for women and 8.3% for men. UN reporting indicates that women face economic disparities, but gross national income per capita is not a direct measure of the wage gap.
Educational attainment also paints a similar picture. Research that UNESCO conduced found that the gender gap in school exclusion has almost disappeared, with the out-of-school rate among girls of primary and secondary school age falling from 47% to 28%, compared to a rate of 27% among boys. However, while parity has been achieved in primary and lower secondary education, women trail behind men in educational attainment. Although enrollment numbers are equal at the start, post-secondary education remains scarce for women. With a high adolescent fertility rate, pregnancy remains one of the leading reasons girls leave school early, sharply lowering retention and transition rates into secondary education. Recognizing this, the Disciplinary Act was removed in 2020, which prohibited pregnant girls from attending classes or school activities.
The Gender Parity Law
Women’s economic participation depends partly on who makes public decisions and who holds public jobs. The Gender Parity Law, adopted in 2022, sets a minimum 40% representation threshold for women and men in covered political and public decision-making bodies. The National Assembly approved it unanimously on July 28, 2022, and it entered into force 60 days after its publication on Sept. 19. That was after the September 2022 election, in which women won 8 of 55 seats (14.5%), down from 25.4% in 2018.
The UN declares the government has met the 40% target, and the World Bank reported that women held 41.7% of ministerial positions in 2024, but only 14.5% of parliamentary seats. However, even though targets have been met, the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2026 report scored Sao Tome and Principe’s legal frameworks at 68 out of 100 and experts’ perceptions of enforcement at 48 out of 100. The parity law can affect representation, but it does not by itself demonstrate better employment or income outcomes. One of the largest new projects is in fishing, a sector the 2023-2027 National Development Plan prioritizes for poverty reduction, and the project’s funder has written women’s access into its design.
Investing in Fishing Communities
Fishing is important to livelihoods and food security, and the government is supporting infrastructure and training in the sector. The African Development Bank (ADB) approved a $21.9 million grant for the Blue Economy and Fisheries Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Maintenance (BEFIRM) project. Running from 2026 to 2030, it will rehabilitate three fishing ports, replace 400 wooden canoes with fiberglass vessels and add six cold storage facilities and four refrigerated trucks.
The ADB expects it to directly benefit 30,000 people along the fish value chain, mainly small-scale fishers, processors and traders. At least 50% of its training and cooperative support will target women and youth, with specific provisions for women-led small businesses and cooperatives. An ADB official said women are central to the fish value chain but struggle to access equipment, finance and markets, and that the project will give women fish traders and processors infrastructure, training and pathways to formalize and scale their businesses. These are targets, not results, and the ADB’s release does not say how many of the direct beneficiaries will be women. The ADB says the project aligns with the 2023-2027 National Development Plan, which prioritizes the blue economy for poverty reduction.
Looking Ahead
Both the parity law and the BEFIRM project are young, and neither has yet shown results for women’s incomes. Whether they improve women’s economic participation in Sao Tome and Principe will depend on how they are conducted in the coming years.
– Anjali Pathak
Photo: Flickr
How Clean Cooking Technologies Can Help Reduce Global Poverty
For millions of families throughout the world, cooking a meal can be more than gathering a few ingredients and turning on the stove. For example, families who cook with wood must find the right wood, build the fire, burn it, manage the smoke at the right point and place the food to let it cook. This process is extremely time-consuming and unhealthy, mainly for families who rely on it for every meal of the day. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 2.1 billion people worldwide cook using open fire or inefficient stoves that use polluting fuels. Household air pollution contributed to an estimated 2.9 million deaths in 2021.
Clean Cooking
Clean cooking refers to cooking technologies and fuels that meet health-based emissions standards. According to WHO, these include electricity, solar, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas, and ethanol, while some advanced biomass cookstoves can also qualify when they meet WHO’s standards.
However, easy access to clean cooking remains hard for some families, especially those living in poverty. In 2023, approximately 2.1 billion people still relied on polluting fuels and technologies for cooking. The World Bank reported that global access to clean cooking was 74% that year, but progress has slowed significantly. Many low-income families’ biggest barrier remains affordability.
The Health Effects of Polluting Fuels
When people burn solid fuels inefficiently, the process releases harmful pollutants. These pollutants include fine particulate matter that can travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Long-term exposure to this household air pollution is associated with several diseases. Some include:
Women and Children: Effects on Health and Time
In many communities, women and children spend more time on household chores and collecting the cooking fuel or the wood, increasing their exposure to smoke. Due to this reason, they bear a disproportionate share of the health burden from household air pollution. Gathering fuel can cause physical exhaustion and musculoskeletal injuries. For women and children, it can also eat away valuable time that could go toward education, paid work, childcare or other productive activities.
Connection Between Cooking and Poverty
The International Energy Agency reported that Kenya increased clean-cooking access from 10% in 2013 to 31% in 2023. However, 69% of households still relied on polluting fuels. In rural areas, 84% of households used traditional biomass stoves, and 79% of rural households used three-stone stoves. More than 60% of Kenyan households spent at least 7.5 hours per week collecting and preparing fuel. These fuel-collection demands can create a burden for households with limited financial resources, especially in rural areas where access to clean cooking remains low.
Pay-as-You-Go LPG in Nairobi
One approach to this problem comes from Nairobi, Kenya. Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) LPG systems allow households to purchase cooking fuel in smaller increments instead of paying the entire cost upfront.
Making Transition Easier
Nairobi families faced difficulty affording LPG because traditional cylinders need a large upfront payment. PAYG technology allowed families to buy fuels in smaller increments through smart mobile payments.
Results of Pay-as-You-Go LPG System
The PAYG LPG program addresses the high upfront cost that can make clean cooking fuels difficult to adopt for lower-income households. The program has displayed measurable results. Researchers analyzed data from 426 PayGo Energy customers in Nairobi from January 2018 to June 2020. During COVID-19, 95% of customers who were active at the beginning of the lockdown continued using PAYG LPG. LPG consumption among the households increased from 1.12 to 1.22 kilograms per person per month, while the number of daily cooking events increased by 60%. The same WHO report compared these households with a group in Eldoret that did not have access to PAYG meters. Those households, which had to purchase LPG in larger quantities, reduced their average LPG use by 75% during lockdown.
Making Clean Cooking More Accessible
The Nairobi case does not mean that PAYG LPG will work identically in every community. The system addresses affordability by allowing households to purchase LPG in smaller increments. Other communities may require different strategies based on their infrastructure, resources and needs.
A Healthier Way Forward
Clean cooking connects several global development priorities, including health, economic opportunity and poverty reduction. However, expanding clean cooking access requires more than introducing a new technology. Communities need solutions that families can afford, access reliably and incorporate into their daily lives. When the transition is made easier, clean cooking can be a part of every family’s daily lives.
– Lalitha Maddirevula
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
5 Charities Operating in Greenland
Across the expansive Arctic settlements of Greenland, geographic isolation and severe sub-zero temperatures present persistent socioeconomic obstacles for local communities. The island relies heavily on maritime shipments for essential goods. Consequently, low-income households face steep expenses for basic groceries, heating fuel and winter apparel. Rather than allowing these structural hardships to determine the well-being of young people, community initiatives step forward to establish essential safety nets. These grassroots organizations strengthen community resilience by addressing hardship through targeted youth empowerment, residential care and emergency relief. Here are five charities operating in Greenland that deliver vital support systems for vulnerable children, isolated youth and families facing hardship.
Foreningen Grønlandske Børn
Founded in 1924, Foreningen Grønlandske Børn creates safe educational environments to support disadvantaged youth across Greenland. The organization runs locally grounded activities and support projects for children and young people up to age 23 throughout Greenland. It serves more than 1,000 children each year through programs designed to combat social isolation, boost self-esteem and encourage school attendance. Its programs also work with children and families facing social challenges.
Kalaallit Røde Korsiat
Established in 1992, Kalaallit Røde Korsiat coordinates emergency aid and community social assistance across the island. The national society maintains seven local volunteer branches in Nuuk, Ilulissat, Qaqortoq, Maniitsoq, Aasiaat, Sisimiut and Kangaamiut. Across these municipalities, volunteer teams run community thrift shops that distribute warm winter jackets, boots and necessary household items at low prices to families on tight budgets. The organization also supports community first-aid activities and its youth initiative, INUA. Through youth-led local projects and social clubs, INUA engages dozens of young volunteers to build peer-support networks and combat loneliness during dark winter months.
Mælkebøtten
Located in Nuuk, Mælkebøtten operates an essential residential assessment facility for children facing acute domestic adversity. The residential center offers temporary care and assessment for children facing serious difficulties at home. During their residency, children receive round-the-clock professional care, balanced nutrition, educational support and psychological evaluations. The professional staff works closely with extended family members and social workers to assess each child’s developmental needs and secure a permanent, healthy living environment for their future.
Nanu Børn
Nanu Børn delivers direct emergency assistance to low-income families facing sudden economic distress. Operating as a volunteer-driven association, the charity organizes seasonal aid campaigns. Its holiday relief initiative delivers support to children and families experiencing hardship. The volunteer network regularly collects, inspects and ships large freight pallets containing warm children’s clothing and educational toys to remote coastal settlements. By delivering essential goods directly to families in need, Nanu Børn shields children from immediate material poverty and ensures that economic hardship does not hinder basic childhood well-being.
Bedre Børneliv
Bedre Børneliv, also known as Meeqqat Inuunerissut, operates as an independent child advocacy organization that defends youth rights and drives preventive child welfare measures across Greenland. The association partners with schools, civic leaders and municipal social service bodies to raise public awareness about neglect, domestic violence and trauma. Its child-protection advocacy has included public education campaigns addressing abuse and children’s rights. By promoting children legal safeguards and lobbying for comprehensive child welfare policies, Bedre Børneliv works to ensure that vulnerable youth grow up in secure environments.
Looking Ahead
These five charities operating in Greenland demonstrate how targeted local initiatives can overcome geographical barriers and mitigate socioeconomic inequality. By pairing emergency humanitarian relief with youth development, counseling and rights advocacy, these organizations safeguard the well-being of future generations across Arctic settlements. Continued civic investment in local solutions provides a sustainable path toward reducing poverty, ensuring that vulnerable children and families receive the care and stability they need to build secure futures.
– Ronnit Jain
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Education Reform in Vietnam Leads Way for Poverty Reduction
Vietnam’s reform efforts and its recent economic improvement led the World Bank to reclassify the country from a lower-middle-income country to an upper-middle-income country in July. While education and poverty may seem unrelated, they are heavily connected, and the improvement of one leads to the improvement of the other.
Behind Education Reform in Vietnam
Projects increasing educational opportunities for vulnerable populations have contributed to the reduction of out-of-school rates. One such project is UNESCO’s We Are ABLE (Achieving Better Living and Education) program, which gives ethnic minority women access to quality education. The ongoing program has benefited more than 8,000 students since 2019 and helped hundreds of school teachers and managers with inclusive curriculums and classroom practices, according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Group.
Other programs, such as Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education, which instructs children in both their local languages and in Vietnamese, and Vi Vu, a text-to-speech software that helps visually impaired students in the Southern dialect, are making schooling more inclusive and accessible, contributing to higher in-school rates.
Improvement in infrastructure has also enhanced educational opportunities. More than 90% of schools in Vietnam now have internet access, according to a UNSDG report from Jan. 2025, increasing the quality of schools and education.
Additionally, national organizations have built more classrooms for children over the years, according to Ministry of Education and Training Pham Ngoc. In a 2024 conference in collaboration with Vietnam Television (VTV), a national TV station and news site, Ngoc said that the number of classrooms in the country increased from 553,181 in 2013, with only 65.9% being structurally sound, to 628,571, with 86.6% being structurally sound, according to VTV. This nationwide increase has especially helped children in rural or remote areas, who may have previously been too far from schools to receive quality education.
Education reform in Vietnam has also significantly reduced poverty in the country.
Education Reform and Poverty Reduction: a Cycle
A 2023 study in the Social Indicators Research journal analyzed the link between education and poverty by monitoring 34 European countries from 2015-2019. The study found that an increase in education levels led to poverty reduction, and the authors even claimed that education appeared to be “one of the best effective methods to eradicate poverty” in a country.
Lack of education can put individuals into poverty because they may not have the required skills and knowledge to find employment, according to the RELX SDG Resource Centre. The article says that it is especially important for women to receive proper education to reduce poverty rates. Educated women are less likely to marry and have children at a young age, allowing them to pursue their education and receive high-paying opportunities.
Poverty also leads to worse education. It affects children’s ability to attend school, from an affordability standpoint, and affects students’ performance in school. Children in poverty not only start school less ready than more affluent peers, both academically and socially, but “the incidence, depth, duration, and timing of poverty all influence a child’s educational attainment,” according to a 2007 study in the Paediatrics & Child Health journal. Factors such as lower parental education and higher stress in the family negatively affect children’s academic development.
Looking Ahead
Education and poverty are inherently related. As education reform in Vietnam continues, poverty’s downward trend will also continue, which, in turn, will lead to better education. Although Vietnam is still working to put more children in schools and take people out of poverty, the nation is proof that education reform greatly reduces poverty.
– Koya Weiss
Photo: Pixabay
Top 3 Winners of the Millennium: Tertiary Sector and Poverty Reduction
The world entered the 2000s with hope; the 1900s had seen the largest conflicts in history and devastating pandemics. Nations and people have made efforts to improve the world. Rwanda, Bangladesh and Vietnam provide examples of substantial poverty reduction since the turn of the millennium.
Rather than ranking countries against each other, this article examines different routes toward improving livelihoods and reducing poverty.
In June 2025, the World Bank updated its international extreme-poverty line from $2.15 (2017 purchasing-power-parity dollars) to $3.00 (2021 purchasing-power-parity dollars), drawing on new price data and revised national poverty lines. Older data using the $2.15 measure should be identified separately rather than directly combined with newer estimates.
Rwanda
Rwanda faced one of the worst atrocities in history during the Rwandan Genocide. After gaining independence from Belgium and later separating from Burundi, Rwanda became a free republic in 1962. The rural share of Rwanda’s population remained around 97% from 1962 until the 1994 genocide. The genocide included looting, destruction and a lack of maintenance on critical infrastructure; this culminated in a steep drop in the economy of an already poor country.
Since the turn of the millennium Rwanda has reduced the proportion of its population living under the extreme poverty line from 82% to 38% in 2023. Part of the reduction is in the shift to the tertiary sector, which makes up more than half of the country’s total GDP since 2024.
The tertiary sector has a complex relationship with poverty reduction. While it requires workers to have education or skills, which alienates the most impoverished, with proper implementation it absorbs surplus labor in less heavily qualified sectors such as agriculture. In Rwanda’s case, investment in education has been associated with a net enrollment rate of 98% in primary education. This has broadened the availability of the tertiary sector and allowed lower-income families to enter the sector. Alongside this, the increased pay leads to increased taxation, providing the government with more funds to allocate to programs such as Vision 2020. The program aims to develop Rwanda into a knowledge-based economy.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh started as East Pakistan in 1947 after the partition of the British Raj, and after decades of ill treatment its people rebelled in 1971. The country survived a genocide, which most U.N. member states do not recognize, before forming Bangladesh as an independent nation. A history of oppression has contributed to Bangladeshi poverty, similar to Rwanda; however, Bangladesh faces even further struggles with overpopulation and climate crisis. Heavy flooding routinely strikes Bangladesh, which sits only 10 meters above sea level on average. These two issues would challenge a fully developed economy, let alone a still developing nation.
Despite these challenges, Bangladesh has made substantial progress against poverty. The World Bank estimated extreme poverty at 5% in 2022 using the former $2.15 international poverty line, while warning that revised survey methods limit direct comparison with older rounds.
Job creation affects the reduction, with the tertiary sector making up 51% of the GDP and employing 39% of Bangladesh’s workforce. In real numbers, industry added 9.4 million jobs, compared with 21.2 million in the service sector. This has received assistance from the Primary Education Stipend Project, which provides food to mothers with the stipulation that their children maintain an 85% school attendance rate. This provides an educated workforce for the country and offers a route out of poverty.
Vietnam
Vietnam has a troubled history, defeating three superpowers in the previous century to ensure independence. Occupation left Vietnam fractured, and the civil war divided it. Alongside these issues, Vietnam has also had to battle the elements, with the monsoon season and regular typhoons flooding the country. To this day Vietnam struggles with education, with a survey in 2021 finding that only 58% of students completed high school-level education.
Since 1986, Vietnam has continued the Đổi Mới program, which means “Restoration.” The program focuses on international trade and shifts Vietnam from socialist autarky toward a liberated private sector. This shift transformed Vietnam from a country that suffered food shortages into one of the world’s largest rice exporters. These changes reduced poverty from 43% in 2002 (there is no data for 2000) to just 1.6% in 2022. Vietnam’s consistent 6.5% economic growth from 1986 to 2009 ranks among the highest rates within developing countries. These reforms helped create conditions associated with substantial poverty reduction.
Conclusion
While Rwanda, Bangladesh and Vietnam continue to face challenges, their experiences show how sustained economic and social development can help reduce poverty. Rwanda and Bangladesh highlight the importance of investment in education and the expansion of the service sector, while Vietnam’s experience shows how economic reform and international trade can transform a country’s economic opportunities. Although these approaches differ, they share a common theme: reducing poverty requires more than economic growth; it also requires opportunities for people to participate in and benefit from that growth.
– Eoin Baxter Mackay
Photo: Flickr